the season ends
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: band practice etc.
well the season has ended for good now. just a little update: we placed 1st at nazareth, 1st at raven's stadium, 3rd at upper moreland, and 6th our of 11 at giant's stadium.

what was interesting about raven's stadium is that the judges made a mistake and put us in the wrong group so we were being judged against a band that was larger than us. but we still ended up beating them anyway. so the judges took our score and compared it to the one in the group that we were supposed to be in and we would've beat them too. so we ended up placing 1st in two different groups and taking home 10 special awards (5 in each group: best marching, best music, best guard, best percussion, and best overall effect). that was in interesting experience.

the trip to giant stadium was a blast. it was on overnight trip so we left saturday morning and got back sunday in the evening. our hotel we stayed at was the hilton just outside of newark airport. we could see the new york skyline from our window. that night it was so cold. in fact i believe it was the coldest i've ever been and that was the reason for our poor performance. the cold weather really ruins your ability to play. it was only about 20 degrees and the puddles in the parking lot were frozen over.

after the show we had to walk around the stadium for pictures and that was the worst. the cold was everywhere and there was a bit of wind coming through the entrances. my hands felt like they were being crushed in a vice and i couldn't feel the instrument i was carrying. it was the worst. some people were even crying it was so bad.

at least i remembered to bring a band parka along which was really warm. a bunch of other people brought parkas and blankets and stuff. so we eventually felt a little better. we had to go on really late to perform (11:24 pm) which was why it was so cold. we didn't get back to the hilton until about 2:00 am.

i'm looking forward to next year. we're doing "pilatuse" by steven reineke who is the same person who did the show last year. so it'll be like that which will be really neat. oh boy i can't wait!

ziggy

form check!
Mood:  cool
Topic: band practice etc.
whoa i totally love this new format for editing my blog. it rocks! well anyways we had practice tonight from 6 pm to 8 pm and my dad came and video taped the show and i watched it earlier this evening and it looked okay. we only have till next friday for our first performance and that's only three more performances. whew! i hope we make more progress.

today i had to work on cleaning out the back yard some more and that meant a lot of raking and moving of big sticks and brush. after that i went to the pool for an hour and then it was time to get ready for band practice. all that raking really helped gather some more new firewood and i hope we can use that thursday night

see thursday night, the posse is thinking about having another get-together and this time at my house so we may have another fire in the fire pit. hopefully as huge as the last one! this is all very tentative so it may change so i dunno. i hope it works out though.

ziggy

p.s. i also have to work tomorrow which isn't a big deal, i just get some more moolah for my wallet lol